Table 3 Range of diagnoses in patients with negative electroretinograms (ERGs) from published large patient cohorts.

From: Negative electroretinograms: genetic and acquired causes, diagnostic approaches and physiological insights

Diagnostic categories

Patients in each diagnosis category as a proportion (%) of all patients with negative ERGs at each centre

London, UK (n = 128)

(1995–1997)

Berlin, Germany (n = 47)

(1992–2004)

Atlanta, Georgia (n = 50)

(1999–2008)

Sao Paolo, Brazil (n = 41)

(2004–2013)

X-linked retinoschisis

14.8

36.2

14

7.3

CSNB

13.3

12.8

58

2.4

CRAO

10.2

0

4a

0

Birdshot

5.5

0

0

0

Toxic

3.9

2.1

2

0

MAR

3.1

2.1

0

0

Batten

0.8

0

0

0

Inflammatory (unspecified)

2.3

0

2

12.2

Photoreceptor dystrophyb

26.6

27.7

8

58.5

Multisystem atrophy

0

0

2

0

Diabetic retinopathy

0

0

0

4.9

Undiagnosed

19.5

19.1

10

14.6

  1. Numbers of patients with negative ERGs and years reported in each study are given in parentheses.
  2. CSNB congenital stationary night blindness, CRAO central retinal artery occlusion, MAR melanoma-associated retinopathy.
  3. aIn the row corresponding to CRAO, the patients from Atlanta included those with vasculitis as well as vascular occlusions.
  4. bIn patients with negative ERGs attributed to photoreceptor dystrophies, a-waves were also subnormal. This applies also to patients in some of the other diagnostic categories.
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